Dr. Cho Discusses Role of Bispecific Agents in Myeloma

Hearn Jay Cho, MD, PhD

Published: Monday, Feb 11, 2019

Hearn Jay Cho, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine, Hematology/Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, discusses the role of bispecific agents in the treatment of patients with myeloma.

Bispecific agents are interesting because early efficacy data have been comparable to those seen with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy; however, Cho says, this class of drugs is more easily administered than CAR T cells. All of these T-cell–directed therapies—bispecific agents, CAR T cells, and engineered T-cell receptors—are similar in that they are testing the theory of whether a genetically modified T cell can have a similar effect to that seen with a naturally produced T cell directed towards an antigen expressed in the tumor cell.

Broadly speaking, antitumor immunity is trying to hijack natural antivirus immune response and redirect that response towards eliminating tumor cells. The challenge is to understand whether engineering a T cell with an artificial receptor or artificially bringing it together externally with a bispecific agent is going to be equivalent to that natural immune response. This is a very important area of research, Cho says, and understanding the mechanism of action becomes key.

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Hearn Jay Cho, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine, Hematology/Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, discusses the role of bispecific agents in the treatment of patients with myeloma.

Bispecific agents are interesting because early efficacy data have been comparable to those seen with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy; however, Cho says, this class of drugs is more easily administered than CAR T cells. All of these T-cell–directed therapies—bispecific agents, CAR T cells, and engineered T-cell receptors—are similar in that they are testing the theory of whether a genetically modified T cell can have a similar effect to that seen with a naturally produced T cell directed towards an antigen expressed in the tumor cell.

Broadly speaking, antitumor immunity is trying to hijack natural antivirus immune response and redirect that response towards eliminating tumor cells. The challenge is to understand whether engineering a T cell with an artificial receptor or artificially bringing it together externally with a bispecific agent is going to be equivalent to that natural immune response. This is a very important area of research, Cho says, and understanding the mechanism of action becomes key.